1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to vehicles and, in particular, to installation and removal of wheel arm assemblies from vehicles used in manufacturing environments. Still more particularly, the disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for installing and removing wheel arm assemblies for vehicles used in manufacturing environments.
2. Background
Building a fuselage may include assembling skin panels and a support structure for the fuselage. The skin panels and support structure may be joined together to form a fuselage assembly. For example, without limitation, the skin panels may have support members, such as frames and stringers, attached to the surface of the skin panels that will face the interior of the fuselage assembly. These support members may be used to form the support structure for the fuselage assembly. The skin panels may be positioned relative to each other and the support members may be tied together to form this support structure.
Fastening operations may then be performed to join the skin panels and the support members together to form the fuselage assembly. These fastening operations may include, for example, riveting operations, interference-fit bolting operations, other types of attachment operations, or some combination thereof. The fuselage assembly may need to be assembled in a manner that meets outer mold line (OML) requirements and inner mold line (IML) requirements for the fuselage assembly.
Some currently available methods for building a fuselage assembly may be more labor-intensive, time-consuming, ergonomically challenging, or expensive than desired. Further, some current assembly methods used to build fuselages may not allow fuselages to be built in the desired assembly facilities or factories at desired assembly rates or desired assembly costs.
With some currently available methods of assembly, performing maintenance or repair on vehicles used during assembly in a factory may require that the vehicles be moved to some location outside of the factory. For example, performing maintenance or a repair on a wheel arm assembly of a vehicle may require that the vehicle be moved to some other location for maintenance, a base of the vehicle be assembled, or the vehicle be taken out of service during the maintenance or repair. Consequently, the time, cost, and effort of performing this type of maintenance or repair may be greater than desired.
In some cases, the current assembly methods and systems used to build fuselages may require that these fuselages be built in facilities or factories specifically designated and permanently configured for building fuselages. These current assembly methods and systems may be unable to accommodate different types and shapes of fuselages. For example, without limitation, large and heavy equipment needed for building fuselages may be permanently affixed to a factory and configured for use solely with fuselages of a specific type. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.